


Pride

by Indigomountain



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bigotry & Prejudice, Bisexual Tony Stark, Coming Out, Gay Pride, Gay Steve Rogers, Hugs, Pride Parades, but only for a second
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 21:58:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19071496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indigomountain/pseuds/Indigomountain
Summary: Steve wanders into a Gay Pride parade.





	Pride

**Author's Note:**

> I went to my first Pride yesterday. I wasn't planning on writing this but I just sat down and it happened. I'm not sure I'm happy with this but it's already written so I might as well post it.

Sometimes Steve just liked to get out. He genuinely enjoyed living at the tower, even if he had been skeptical when Tony had offered him a room month ago, but sometimes it got a little... hectic.  It was always hectic but some days it just seemed like too much.  Today was one of those days.  He was hit with a wall of sound when the elevator doors opened on the communal floor, he had just come  from his morning workout and was looking for a snack but Clint was shouting and Tony  was shouting back. He didn’t even walk in to see if the  microwave  was  in pieces and scattered across about every flat surface available again . Natasha, who was usually the voice of reason,  didn't speak up whether it was because she  hadn't had any coffee yet  even if it was already ten thirty or because she simply wasn’t there was anyone guess.

As quietly as he could, Steve had backed  into the elevator again . Hopefully when he got back the tower would still be standing, if it wasn’t though that was Tony’s problem. Well it would be his problem too but it would be a problem for future Steve as Clint would say. In this moment he just needed to  b e away from all of that. 

Steve fled from the building with the clever disguise of a ball cap and a pair of aviators, no New Yorker would bother him while he was wearing it. He didn’t have anywhere in particular in mind, he just picked a direction and started walking.

It took a little while before Steve noticed there was something going on. There were people wearing rainbow everything and they were all walking in the same direction; there were whole groups and then people in ones and twos. There were colorful shirts and dresses and pants then articles of clothing that Steve had never seen before like the things that would have been knee socks except they stopped at the ankle and were shaggy with  rainbow colored  hair.

Curiosity winning out , Steve started walking in the same general direction. The longer he followed the more people joined; almost all of them were wearing rainbows but there was a smattering of pastels and a few other repetitions like blue pink and purple. He was in a crowd at this point, it was like they were a small parade all marching down the sidewalk, everyone was smiling and laughing with each other. As the crowd intersected with a side street another smaller group joined the main throng that Steve had found himself in the middle of.

He couldn’t help but notice the large police presence, mounted officers watching but not impeding the crowd in any way and then more on foot. Whatever this was they had known about it before hand. 

The woman who had been walking next to him for a few blocks now turned to him, “Would you like a flag?” She presented one of her many small rainbow flags with a smile. 

“Thank you,” He wasn’t sure she could really hear him over the noise but she didn’t seem to care so he smiled back and accepted the flag even though he wasn’t sure what was going on.One of the men that had just joined the procession was holding a piece of cardboard that had been cut to shape words but Steve couldn’t figure it out from what he could see looking at it backwards, the only thing he could tell was that it was as colorful as everything else. 

It was another three blocks before they all reached the final destination; it was a sea of people spanning the width of fifth avenue, he couldn’t even see how far back it went. He wandered thorough, marveling at all of the different outfits. There were people with balloons and people covered head to toe in sparkles. One group was unraveling a large dark blue tarp with a yellow equals sign in the middle t h at h ad to be fifty feet  long; it took forty people each holding a rope attached to the tarp to keep it off the ground. 

One of the men that brought the tarp was struggling to hold both it and the sign he had brought. He turned and addressed Steve who happened to be the closest person, he had been watching avidly as they unraveled their tarp, “Would you like  to carry  a sign?” 

Not seeing any reason to decline Steve had a small flag and a sign now.  It read  _ Equality is a Human Right  _ in bright yellow printed letters across a dark blue background with that same yellow equals sign _.  _ Steve turned in a circle and he could see other signs being held up  _ Love is Love _ was written on a homemade sign in colorful markers, another sign said  _ Born this Way  _ in big rounded letters. It was only when he saw a sign that said  _ Support gay marriage! End homophobia! _ that Steve finally figured out what all these people must be here for. 

He knew that it wasn’t illegal to be gay any more. He knew that two men or two women could even get married in the state of New York. It just hadn't clicked that one could be _ this  _ open in public about who you loved. When a Shield agent had told him all of this it had taken only a minute, it was glossed over in leu of more important historical events. Steve himself had been to hesitant at the time to really stop and ask more about it, too paranoid because even if it wasn’t illegal surly it was still looked down upon. He  had  felt vindicated for keeping his mouth shut after the first time he passed someone on a street corner shouting about the sin that was homosexuality, no one stopped him, people just ignored the man and went on with their day. Being gay might be legal but it certainly hadn’t seemed accepted. 

This was something more than simply being legal, this was being celebrated. These people were shouting it to the roof tops, showing it for everyone to see because surly that’s what all of this color was about. He was feeling so grateful to already be holding his own tiny rainbow flag, here he was in the middle of this thrumming crowd holding his own little piece of color. Steve looked down at his sign again and it took on a whole new meaning before his eyes; equality is a human right, the words seemed so much bigger than they had a moment ago. 

Steve was jarred out of his thoughts when the crowd started moving again, this time as a single unit. He realized that what he had called a parade before was nothing,  _ this _ was a parade, a real one. There were people milling about on the sidewalk watching as Steve and the sea of people around him walked past. People shouted wordless joy and others shouted back. A large rainbow beach ball was tossed around and someone threw rainbow confetti. Steve held up his sign, it wasn’t the biggest but that didn’t matter.

They passed a mounted police officer and Steve marveled at the fact that this was allowed, the officers were there to keep the peace not to stop their march. His throat felt thick and he had to swallow a few times before the feeling went away. He tried to imagine this happening back in Brooklyn in the forties, but of course it  _ never _ would have happened because there were laws about homosexuals assembling in any state licensed or public place. They would have been arrested and it wouldn’t have been gently. 

There were more people with dozens of little rainbow flags and Steve watched as they methodically worked their way through the outskirts of the sidewalk giving all of them away. A camera man was filming as their parade walked past, Steve held his sign higher to make sure it could be seen. 

It was five blocks before Steve heard what he had been expecting since he figured out what was going on; there was a protestor, he was shouting into his m ega phone, “-ultimate and sovereign judge for sin. Homosexuality is sin by His order; it is not decided by public opinion or  decei -” Steve was going to ignore him. He'd heard it before, it was the same hate that every religious zealot preached and he wasn’t going to let that bigot take away what he had found here today.

All of the sudden the protestor was drowned out. There was a great roar of the crowd as they all started chanting “Equal rights!” louder than one man with a m ega phone could hope to overcome . These people were not just going to ignore it. Steve joined in to the voice of the crowd and he could feel tears streaming down his face, he had never felt so free- so completely honest and himself. 

He was so swept up in his wave of emotions that he didn’t even realize their parade had led them  to Greenwich Village, there were hundreds of people milling about in various states of dress and there were booths set up  all over . He saw a stand selling everything rainbow and traded out his Dodgers hat for a rainbow ball cap and his white t-shirt for a black one that said pride in rainbow letters. Steve felt momentarily self-conscious for stripping off his shirt in such a crowded place but a man wearing nothing but a tiny pair of leather shorts and a pair of work boots walked past him and suddenly it didn’t feel so indecent.

He was handed ribbons and pins and bracelets for no reason what so ever and everyone seemed so happy, Steve himself hadn't stopped smiling in hours. He had blushed scarlet when he came across a booth called ‘the dong toss’ where the objective was to toss a glowstick necklace onto one of a dozen large rubber dicks. He blushed even harder when he won and received a rubber ring in a cellophane bag that he was told was a vibrating cock ring.

What he would consider the best part though was the booth that had pamphlets on the history of the LGBTQIA community. It was informative and it gave him a greater understanding of what it meant when he was told that being gay was legal, the work that went into making it legal made it seem more real.  There were so many booths telling him all about things he had never even thought to question like adoption in the gay community and the struggle for a women's right to choose. He was thankful for a free bag given to him by a bank that was there for some reason because he had more informative flyers and papers than he could hold. Not to mention all of the other things he was constantly being handed. 

All of the levity of the day left at once and Steve fell back into Captain America mode when he saw  I ron  M an fly overhead and land in a break in the crowd somewhere up ahead. He hadn't heard his phone go off with an alert but he could have missed it with just how very loud it was. 

Steve pushed himself through the crowd as fast as he could, not thinking of what Tony would say when he found Captain America decked out in rainbows and covered in glitter in the middle of Gay Pride. Once he was finally through an eternity later, he couldn’t find any danger, that didn’t mean there wasn’t any though.

“Iron man, what’s the situation?” He asked in his no  nonsense voice, hoping that Tony would stay serious until the situation was under control.

“Steve? What are you doing here?” Tony asked in a high voice, like he had been startled. Then his faceplate came off and he just stared at Steve for a moment. “This is very unexpected.”

“There isn’t a situation is there?” Steve was suddenly realizing how many people were staring at him. Before right now no one had looked twice at the buff blond guy in a pride shirt, one of many, or if they had it was just because they liked looking. This was different. They were looking and thinking, ‘Is that Captain America in a pride shirt?’

“There is not,” Tony looked like he was thinking the same thing.

“You were just here for the parade,” which seemed obvious now; Tony wasn’t even wearing his usual red and gold suit, this one was blue and purple with pink where all of the gold usually was. Steve had learned that those were the colors for the bisexual flag. He had also just learned what a bisexual was. 

“Correct.” 

They just stood there looking at each other for an achingly long awkward moment. He didn’t know what else to say but surly Tony wasn’t going to have anything bad to say, he was here too. He wasn’t going to judge Steve in his pride shirt while he flew around in his blue purple and pink armor, right?

“Jarvis open up. I’m going to take a walk, why don’t you take some pictures with people,” As Tony stepped out of the armor people got out of his way like the parting of the red sea. Steve trailed behind him, not sure what he should be feeling right now. 

It was a marvel that Tony could find a quiet corner for them to talk, not that Steve knew what to say.

“Are you ok?” Tony studied his face as he said it.

“Of course, I'm ok. Why wouldn’t I be?” Because he was here? He was just as colorful as most of the people here by now, obviously if he were uncomfortable with homosexuals, he would have left instead of buying clothes and blending into the crowd.

“Steve, you were just recognized, basically outed in public. Sure, it was at pride, arguably the best place for being out and proud usually, but you’re well known and someone is going to tweet about it or talk about it or something. People are going to know. So, are you ok? ” That was something he hadn’t thought about. He was so caught up in this atmosphere that it hadn’t occurred to him yet. 

“I don’t know. This was the first time I've ever been this open about it. People were all so accepting... but it won ’ t be like that in other places will it?” The man shouting hatred at them, the one they drowned out, there would be so many more where he came from. Maybe their shouting wouldn’t be enough next time. 

“Well I'm sure it won ’ t be as bad as you’re imag i ning but not everyone is going to be as accepting no. We'll get through it though,  I' ll help you. The team will support you. You have friends. You'll be ok.” Tony put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. It was comforting, being reminded he wasn’t alone.

“Thanks Tony , ” It was probably the atmosphere of everyone else around him, Steve usually wasn’t so touchy feely, but he pulled Tony close and hugged him for all he was worth.  

“It’s no problem Cap, any time you want to talk.”

“I’ll have to take you up on that some time. All these pamphlets are great but I'm sure I’ll have a million questions.” He showed off his bag full of papers, it would take him hours to sort through them all.

"I am a fount of knowledge," Tony mumbled from where he was still squished against Steve's shoulder.


End file.
